DA Set To Reveal Grand Jury Report On CPS's Handling Of Valva Case

CENTER MORICHES, NY —Suffolk County District Attorney Ray Tierney is set to provide an update Thursday on the grand jury investigation relating to how Child Protective Services handled the Thomas Valva case.

Tierney said he will hold a press conference Thursday at the H. Lee Dennison building in Hauppauge to announce the conclusion of a six-month special grand jury empaneled to investigate the conduct and practices of Suffolk County Child Protective Services, in relation to the January, 2020 death of Thomas Valva, 8.

Thomas died of hypothermia after spending the 19-degree night in his father's frigid Center Moriches garage, where he and his brother had been forced to sleep in the plummeting temperatures with no blankets and no pillows on the cold floor. His father doused him outside with icy water after Thomas, who had no access to a bathroom, soiled himself, evidence at trial indicated.

At the trials for both Michael Valva, Thomas' father, and Angela Pollina, his former fiance, witnesses, tears streaming, testified how the boys had been sent to school starving, foraging for food, and icy cold, their faces and hands raw and red.

Tierney said the grand jury has issued a report containing factual findings and recommendations to improve the Child Protective Services system "to better keep children safe."

Many have cried out for change after the boys' mother Justyna Zubko-Valva said she'd reached out for help from CPS to no avail. In addition, staff at Thomas' East Moriches Elementary School testified at both trials that they'd "flooded" CPS with calls to report the boys being sent to school freezing, hungry and in urine-soaked clothes, as well as with bruises — but, they said, help never came.

In April, 2023 Angela Pollina was sentenced to 25 years to life after being convicted of murder in Thomas' death. She was also sentenced to a year each for the other four counts of endangering the welfare of a child. All sentences will run consecutively

In 2022, former NYPD Officer Michael Valva also received the maximum sentence of 25 years to life in prison for the death of his son. Valva, 45, was convicted of murder and endangering the welfare of a child.

Valva and Pollina were arrested Jan. 24, 2020, and charged with second-degree murder and four counts of endangering the welfare of a child. Each faced 25 years to life in prison, and both pleaded not guilty.

In 2020, former Suffolk County District Attorney Tim Sini first announced that he planned to convene a special grand jury to investigate all the circumstances surrounding Thomas' death in the frigid garage.

On Jan. 24, 2020,Suffolk County homicide detectives arrested Michael Valva, 40, and Valva's fiancée, Angela Pollina, 42, of Bittersweet Lane in Center Moriches. Although his father initially reported that Thomas died after a fall in the driveway, gruesome details emerged at a press conference by then- Suffolk County Police Commissioner Geraldine Hart. When he was found, Thomas' body temperature was just 76 degrees.

Valva officially died of hypothermia, according to the Suffolk County Medical Examiner, Hart said.

“I recently unveiled the CPS Transformation Act to help reform a broken system that failed to protect Thomas Valva," said then- Suffolk County Executive Steve Bellone at the time.

"What happened here is heinous. It's clearly a house of horrors. A child is dead — and we simply can't understand how this could happen. How another human being could do this — much less as human being to their own child," Sini said at the time.

Thomas and Anthony were undernourished, begging for food, and foraging through the garbage at school and for crumbs because they were "so hungry," Assistant District Attorney Keriann Kelly said, as she painted a verbal image in court of the house where Thomas died. The boys, she said, were physically abused; during one incident, Pollina "dragged Thomas and threw him down the stairs," Kelly said. They were sent to school in urine-soaked soiled pullups, she said.

Bellone, at the time, announced the results of an internal review of Department of Social Services' procedures and procedures sparked by Thomas' death and said the system did not protect autistic children. He outlined reforms to prevent future tragedy.

Thomas' death has long been the catalyst for an outpouring of grief among those who knew him and complete strangers, with hundreds who have come together to honor him at vigils, fundraisers and at his funeral.

Many have demanded change, questioning how his case fell through the cracks despite reported calls and complaints about suspected abuse.

Thomas' mother Justyna Zubko-Valva pleaded for help on her Twitter page before her son died. In 2020, Zubko-Valva filed a $200 million wrongful death suit. A judge ruled that portions of the $200 million lawsuit filed by Zubko-Valva after Thomas died can move forward, a judge ruled.

Zubko-Valva has not responded to requests for comment.

Four years after Thomas' death, newly elected Suffolk County Executive Ed Romaine vowed, in his inaugural speech this year, to fix the current system so that no child will ever again slip through Child Protective Services and die, despite numerous, documented calls to save him.

Romaine said he is serious about the need to improve the county's Child Protective Services. At the inauguration ceremony, he pointed to his grandson who, he said, "sat next to a young boy in third grade called Thomas Valva. That lesson is never lost on me. It's one of the failures of government today. And I am going to work very hard to make sure that we have a system that does not fail another child."

Romaine told Patch that he "continues to assess the county’s Social Services and Child Protective Services departments and will unveil a plan that will address any deficiencies which may have contributed to the tragic death of Thomas Valva."